Phil Starr

I used the Behringer 205 as a personal monitor and upgraded to the TC Helicon. It does sound nicer and you do have fx built in, I still use it but the Behringer in a loud band works better as it's limited frequency response means it is less prone to feedback which comes in fairly early with the TC. However after some experimentation I've ended up with the RCF 310's Mk3 they just do the job so well and at that price I wouldn't look anywhere else at the moment.

Celestion are pretty good at providing these for their speakers via email. I've not tried Eminence but it might be worth emailing them. Fane tend change the designs of their speakers whilst keeping the same name which get's confusing. If the speakers are OEM then you probably won't get any details, although Ashdown are pretty helpful generally. If the speakers date back to the early 70's nobody will know the T/S parameters because their work only became widely known then, There were still designers in the late 70's who hadn't adapted to use them for instrument speakers.

Funnily enough I was loading up the small cab a couple of minutes ago and I wondered whether it would be possible to squeeze in a tweeter. I think that if I did try to do that I'd probably change the port into a slot port, alternatively you could easily shift the ports to the back. That would easily create enough space on the baffle for a tweeter.

It would do, the sound of bass guitar doesn't usually have those frequencies and when it does they often excite room resonances. Bass sounds cleaner and clearer without those problems which is why HPF's clean up the sound and why subs aren't a good idea for bass. The sensitivity is 96dB so they've simply done a mathematical calculation of the level at 600W. roughly an extra 28dB. A lot of modern PA speakers ( maybe all of them) though are using very different figures for peak output. If you look at that QSC for example they quote the amplifier as '2000W peak' with a 12" driver it is unlikely the speaker can handle more than 300W, either due to heat dissipation or more problematically excursion. If that speaker is 96dB/W too then they are probably claiming it outputs 129dB 96dB@ 1W so 129 @ 2000W In practice it will probably handle half the power the Ampeg can and thus will be 3dB down on the Ampeg. I'd also suspect that a lot of the figures are based upon some room reinforcement from the floor and possibly walls. You make a good point about the sensitivity of the Ampeg though, it is very low for a 4x10. Not their usual fare. If you modify the drivers for low bass it means adding mass to the cone and using longer coils to cope with excursion at low frequencies.

So far I've had a good experience with the Maui 5 too, our singer bought one for his solo act and immediately went out to buy a second. We used it at a rehearsal and had planned to use it at the next gig, until said singer fell out with the drummer. End of that band. The Curve looks like it will go just a bit louder and is within the sort of budget Sam is imagining I think. I've heard the Markbass version of this sort of PA and that is excellent too, no idea what sort of price. the Evox 8 looks like RCF's version with the Evox12 being the louder version again I'd imagine they'd be pretty good but I've not heard the Evox.

Hi Sam, I quite like the EV's but the RCF's sound better and the 12" ART732's are lighter and cheaper so that's a no brainer. Having the 735's will mean for smaller gigs you can leave the subs behind and they are also lighter and cheaper than the EV's. The only other things I would look at in that price bracket are the QSC K series but the RCF's are currently the ones to beat. The only other thing to consider for a function band is something like the LD systems Curve or a similar line source system. They probably don't give any advantage in sound quality but the coverage is more even and they are quicker to set up and knock down. They look very professional and that is also a factor in your sort of market https://www.ld-systems.com/en/complete-pa-systems/?force_sid=22osc7lca2em2tbefnnbdg7875lsqfk2sgj210as4k9bnhe28hrig72kgocc7g6907sofe0uq9h0bqgov2eugb5c10fo8fn7ko2di51

Just a quick one. What do you need your cab to do? Increasingly people are moving to put all the instruments through the PA and just use their rig for monitoring. It has a lot of advantages to do things this way but basically that is down to PA's being so much better and being able to handle everything at loud volumes in a compact package so you don't need backline to do all the lifting. That assumes you have a decent PA though and that all the band are willing to cut down on the on stage levels. If you go this route a single 12 or a 2x10 will just about give you all you need. A lot of us are carrying two of these so when we need the extra oomph we just add the second cab. One will do monitoring duties, rehearsals and small gigs even without PA support two give you the flexibility to cover the rest of our needs. The only caution is that really capable 1x12's or 2x10's don't come cheap. The reasons for the 8x10's and even 4x10's have gone. Single drivers can handle much more power than a few years back and amplifier power outputs per £1 have improved so multiple drivers with high efficiency aren't needed in the same way. The only thing I would say though is to try as many cabs as you can. In the end the sound is what matters and you won't like the sound of every modern lightweight

All these arguments have been pretty well rehearsed over the years, like others here I suspect I was alive at the time all these songs came out. It was a pretty polarised time and I'm pretty sure the song was intended to be inflammatory. You are all entitled to a different point of view. I don't assume every covers band that plays the song is racist and it's a catchy tune. A lot of MJ's songs are pretty catchy too, it's a loss if they disappear but it is also a moral challenge and we have to think about these things. My point is that I think we all contribute to the normalisation of ideas and values. I'm a great believer in the right to cause offense but most of us have lines we don't want to cross and I prefer to live with people who have principles and they aren't principle if you don't put them first. There's a lot of grey areas too, I don't expect or want us to all agree. So hurrah for people who say no thanks, I may disagree with you over what we find offensive but I support anyone's right to say whoah that's far enough.

I think that's just justification after the fact, the song specifically refers to Governor (George Wallace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wallace ) and was a response to that Neil Young song. I'm happy to believe 'Alabama' was the foolish response of a then very young man from the South and I'd probably play the other Skynyrd song if asked but Alabama itself is quite specifically opposed to the equal rights movement. I suppose it would be the equivalent of a song written in support of P.W. Botha at the heart of apartheid. I'm happy to accord the same reasoning to NY, we all have done things as young people we wouldn't do now.

Our vocalist walks in plugs in a mic and just sings along. The rest of us spend hours in the shed figuring/learning chord progressions making our fingers do things they don't want to do. I love the bass lines in a lot of MJ's songs and I dare say drummers and the others find things to admire. I doubt Jackson had much say in any of that. Do we lose all of that because the singer was (possibly) very dodgy. I'm also an innocent until proven guilty sort of person and there is a lot of money riding on a successful case in this instance with some pretty hot lawyers coaching claimants. Truly legal systems are distorted by big money of all kinds. We may never have truth. Equally for those of us playing covers I think we have to exercise moral judgements and also not offend audiences. I won't play Sweet Home Alabama because it is explicitly racist and I won't play Brown Sugar, I'm not sure it is actually encouraging us to 'whip the women, just around midnight' or that raping slaves means we are 'doing all right' but you can form your own judgements. I wouldn't sing it in front of my daughter so why play it in front of anyone's daughter? For each of us the lines are different of course but music has the effect of normalising things and I don't think we have no responsibility. fortunately we have thousands of songs to choose from. PS our singer is actually a lovely guy, and that mic is really heavy

You may be right about the neo speakers, I took that from a manual downloaded from the GK website but couldn't find an exact match for the SBX ii. However those GK drivers that Bill linked to look like good units at that price. If the OP's cabs are a similar size to the cabs these drivers come out of there is every chance they will work well. It isn't guaranteed without knowing the specs and doing the calculations but drivers tend to cluster around similar engineering solutions to the same problems of amplifying bass so you can often get away with swapping out drivers. Using these would at least mean the cab was all GK even if not original. the drivers Bill linked us to are described as Paragon 10's http://store.gallien-krueger.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=082-0460-C

OK so what you have is a box. If you put in different drivers it will sound different. how much do you want to pay to replace the speakers and what do you want to get out of the swap, just a working cab or do you have something more than this in mind? Is lightweight important to you, high sound levels, punchy sound, or whatever? Remember the more you want the more you will probably have to shell out? Are you handy and willing to modify the cab or do you just want something to drop in? Is this something you need up and running quickly for a gig or can you take some time? Finally a couple of quality 10's are going to set you back £150-200 maybe more, have look to see what else is on offer at that sort of price before sending good money after bad. If you still want to go ahead I'll start making suggestions and asking for technical information.

I was hoping that Bill might have known which speakers are fitted, but in the absence of that you need to find the best match you can. the first thing would be to contact the manufacturers https://www.gallien-krueger.com/ they may provide spares direct. If not an exact match is difficult, The Thiele Small thing just means it has to match the cab, the frequency response will be unlikely to match so the sound of the cab will change. The original speakers are 200W drivers with neo magnets, I couldn't find anything like that on the Eminence web site. Why do you want to change them?

Looks like you are out of luck, the cab is 4 ohms I think and the amp is 4 ohms minimum so won't run a second cab. If you really like the Aguilar then running a second cheap cab would change the sound and you might not find that as nice. I was going to suggest a second matching cab but unless yours is 8ohms your amp won't cope. Sorry

When it switches itself off what is the standby fault led doing? The amp has a feature which switches off the high voltage power if there are any faults with the power output valves. With any valve amp you have to suspect the valves first, they aren't components that last forever and they may need replacing. It's also possible that there are problems with the pin connections, you can pull them out and look for signs of corrosion and maybe try a bit of switch cleaner in the sockets. Don't poke around unless you are confident though and only do so with the amp unplugged and rested for a while, there are some nasty voltages in there.

Thanks Lozz this is more like the sort of response I was hoping for. I suppose I've graduated to being an 'intermediate' level bassist. My rhythmic work is fairly secure and I've always found that side of things fairly easy, well easier than thinking up and playing improvised melodic elements where I'm still firmly stuck in the pentatonic over one octave What I actually play rhythmically will depend upon the song and what the singer and Drummer are doing so learning new songs for me is mainly being familiar with the changes and structure of the song. I've been playing with a couple of new (to me) bands recently and a lot of our songs, all covers, have a driving eight beat. Killers, Stereophonics, AC/DC and so on. I suppose having to learn a lot of songs in a short time and being a new bassist with a couple of different bands who are focussing on their new bassist has made me a bit more conscious of how I am playing. Most of the tab you see is written as a straight 8 even when it patently isn't so I've been listening to try and work out where the original bassists are placing their emphasis and if they are dropping notes or just playing unevenly. I hadn't realised I had a rhythmic style, I've unknowingly dropped into playing 1-hold 2 and 3 and 4 and every chord change in my initial run through. Playing live I think I am putting in just the right amount of variation to fit the song and what everyone else is doing. (Straight eights when the drummer drifts off tempo ) Turns out I may be running in more of a groove than I thought, that may be OK as I say people find me easy to play with and audiences manage to dance without tripping on the rhythm. I suppose I wanted to know how other bassists approach rhythmic variations, we tend to talk about notes more than beats on BC.

You may be governed by the Consumer Rights Act 2015 providers of services have to do so with 'reasonable' care. There is an inconsistency in their answer to you. The tracking is done by scanning the bar codes as we all know. Telling you it has been delivered means it was scanned by the final delivery scanner. It can't have been down the wrong chute and delivered, one of those stories is incorrect, possibly both. Either their technology doesn't work or they are being dishonest or their tracking is compromised. Putting things down the wrong chute with no system in place to recover it doesn't seem reasonable to me, or saying it is delivered when it wasn't. You could try making a claim through the small claims court, under the act they have to show they took reasonable care, the burden of proof is on them not you. Worth googling to see if you could try that?

Nobody has ever said anything as specific as that. Generally the comments are that I make it easy for the band, I'd kind of assumed that was because I keep it simple but maybe I've been subconsciously laying the emphasis on the One for years. Go on what other habits have people developed, I'm surely not the only one.

I've just spent three years with a group of good musicians who were rubbish at rehearsals and who had disorganised over-committed lives. When everyone was there both physically and metaphorically it was the best sounding band I've been in. We did six gigs in three years. I wish I'd faced up to the issues way back and I could have those years again. the drummist was our biggest problem. It's probably too late now but my experience is that whoever brings the conflict into the light is the one who loses out, usually me It might have been better to have suggested a 'dep' for when he couldn't make it. The new drummer would either slot in and you could at least rehearse or the threat would make the old drummer focus more and he'd show a bit more commitment. I've rarely come across a drummer who understands rehearsal. Most of them think they can learn a song in minimal time and a setlist in a couple of days, and up to a point they usually can get through a set pretty much straight out of the box; if you don't mind the odd fill in the wrong place or the drums going on for a bar or two at the end of the song. I'm not saying drums are easy, as someone who struggles to move their hands independently but that it is different if you have no notes to worry about. I've yet to come across a drummer who truly enjoys rehearsal or who understands the need to repeat bits that didn't work, their bit did.

I've just had to learn a set list for a new band. Lots of straight eight beats in their songs (all covers) but because I'm comparing what I play with the originals I've noticed I'm more often than not I'm playing the first beat as a quarter note followed by six eighth beats. Pretty much every time there is a chord change but sometimes keeping that rhythm in. I've probably developed this habit with bands that don't practice properly at home as a way of emphasising the chord changes 'look guys here it is'. This band are great, they show up to rehearsals having learned the songs but they are saying I'm particularly easy to play with. Up to now I've kind of dismissed that sort of comment as people being kind, I mean I appreciate the kindness a lot but I know my limitations as a bassist Does anyone else have this habit, or any others they've noticed?

Hi Al, Frequency response isn't a good way to assess speakers like this. The figures are usually taken at the two extremes where the sound output has fallen 10dB. Speakers are never flat between these two extremes unless DSP has been applied and the brightness for bass won't be the result of the extremes, your bass pickup just won't have any response above 10kHz anyway so that is all irrelevant. Brightness is more likely to be due to a peak in the upper mids or maybe an over-enthusiastic horn driver. Have a look at the frequency response of the Eminence driver here, you'll see the sort of peak in mid response that is typical of many bass drivers. https://www.eminence.com/pdf/Beta_12A-2.pdf you'll also see that there are lots of ups and downs in the response curve, it's only smooth at the bottom because they've put in a calculated response, below 200Hz the design of the cab will shape the response so that may be lumpy too. this is one of the reasons for not mixing cabs. All those lumps and dips create the timbre of the sound your cab will make, any other cab will have similar highs and lows in response and they won't line up most of the time. Where they do the speaker will shout out at you where the peaks coincide, where they don't there'll be a blurring as peaks in one cancel highs in the other and you'll have a completely different timbre to either cab on their own. In your case complicated by the mismatched impedances. In practice I think the 4 ohm cab will dominate so much the other one might as well not be there. If you want to own these cabs just because you do then that's great but it isn't really a plan to use them together and certainly not without trying the combination out before you part with any money.

I think the whole thing about full range and flat response is that what you put in is what you get out. If there is no high end content in the signal then there won't be any hf coming out of the speaker. As to 'authority' I think that has two components; power handling, and how the system copes with the most difficult bass notes compared with the rest of the spectrum. If you stop to think about it the best PA speakers are designed to amplify the whole band with each instrument sitting where it belongs in the mix i.e. the speaker will handle all the bass if it (the whole band) is mixed as it should be. A pair of PA speakers should be able to handle all the demands of the bass and kick drum alone. From the technical point of view the limits of a driver are set by heat dissipation, the voice coil length/magnet geometry, the mass of the cone and the compliance of the suspension. These have physical/practical limits for all speakers of a particular size and the best bass speakers and best bass PA drivers are going to be approaching these limits, often they are the same driver so there is going to be no difference in authority between really good PA speakers and really good bass speakers. I'd happily use and specify RCF drivers for my bass designs but they are slightly more pricy than some other manufacturers offering the same specs. As to cost, PA speakers are a bit cheaper than bass speakers of the same quality. The RCF745 is pretty much top of the tree without going into the specialist area and available about £1100 the Barefaced £1250 (Brexit and exchange rate changes have narrowed the gap this year), lower down the scale the difference is probably greater in percentage terms. The 31Hz/5 string thing is a non-issue with this quality of gear. Most commercial bass cabs have little output below 50 Hz just like PA tops. Fortunately neither do bass guitars. You need to decide what your amp is for and how you will use it. A single 12PA speaker from QSC or RCF will be plenty loud enough for your stage monitor. It'll probably be loud enough for the rest of the band on anything but the largest of stages and TBH most bands need to reduce their onstage volume quite a lot. No single 12 is going to address a large auditorium with authority, whatever the manufacturer says. If you want bass authority with backline only you probably do need an old fashioned multi speakered stack. Assuming all else is the same two 10's have roughly the same cone area as one 15, so you need two 15's to make a 4x10 level of authority. IMO that is way too loud to be on most stages. The FR800 has DSP. Barefaced will even customise it for you.

If you are looking used the Fender American Deluxe P is worth a look. Humbucking bridge PUP on mine, a couple of extra frets to play with (I get vertigo above the 5th fret, so not used much ) and a lovely neck, J like neck but with just a little more wood on mine

I'm happy with the Studiospares ones. My duo partner has the K&M and next to each other you'd be hard pushed to tell the difference. Apart from the rubber feet both are all metal construction. the finish of the K&M is better there are nicer bolts in places and the screw threads on the sliding grip is better cut, just attention to detail mainly. The clamp on the tilting grip of the Studiospares has a better grip if anything than the K&M, that may just be personal preference though. I've never broken my cheapies the oldest I reckon is 15 years old. Other band members have battered theirs and they are looking a bit wobbly, but that is after years. If I was in a big touring band I'd pay the extra £20 a stand for the kosher stands but for the average pub band I'd just have the Studiospares. I suppose it's a MIM versus Custom shop thing if you want an analogy.

Konig and Meyer https://www.k-m.de/en although I use Studiospares mic stands which are kind of clones as they are about a third of the price. You can get spares for either.